By the way, we should remember that word 'canter' to denote a 'slow gallop' in today's English actually comes from the ambling pace of the Canterbury pilgrims' horses - where canter is an abbreviation of word Canterbury. Hence Canterbury gallop or Canterbury pace* were phrases applied to the easy, ambling pace at which horse ridding prilgrims went to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. As these pacing horses were gradually forced out of the breeding and training in England by the growing numbers of trotting and galloping English thoroughbreds, the term 'canter' or 'easy gallop' of these Throughbres was adopted into the English language hippological vocabulary and on vernacular vocabulary, at end of XVII century and beginning of XVIII century.

And now I found this paper by that is examining horses in Chaucer's tales Mounted Menagerie
Intriguing reading into the medieval horse world, I daresay.

Please find Chaucer's horses as described in the Tales: from the Prologue by Nevill Coghill, Penguin Classics, 1951:
The Wife of Bath
Easily on an ambling horse she sat
Well wimpled up, and on her head a hat
As broad as is a buckler or a shield;
She had a flowing mantle that concealed
Large hips, her heels spurred sharply under that."

The Merchant
There was a Merchant with a forking beard
And motley dress; high on his horse he sat,
Upon his head a Flemish beaver hat
And on his feet daintily buckled boots."
The Plowman
"He wore a tabard smock, and rode a mare."
The Reeve
"The stallion-cob he rode at a slow trot
Was dapple-grey and bore the name of Scot."
The Monk
"A monk there was, one of the finest sort
Who rode the country; hunting was his sport.
A manly man, to be an Abbot able;
Many a dainty horse he had in stable.
His bridle, when he rode, a man might hear
Jingling in a whistling wind as clear,
Aye, and as loud as does the chapel bell.....
His palfrey was as brown as is a berry."
The Skipper (sailor)
"He rode a farmer's horse as best he could."
the text above comes from this website fellpony
some images of the Tales personages
the Manciple rider I
wife of bath rider IIrider III
knight rider IV

Friday, July 23, 2010

Salve,
Neo-Assyrian Kigdom ( List of Assyrian kings ) and its art ( wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire books.google Arts of Assyria ) always invokes the strongest feelings because of a degree of brutality shown (in this XIX century book there are many images taken from Assyrian sculptures showing that side of their art Assyria ).
But at the same time their art is the best place where to find images of fabulous horses, horse tack and ample evidence of horsemanship for the period between 900 to 600 ( I millennium) BC (BCE).
From the cuneiform tablets we can learn that the best breeding ground for the horses were in Mannea, east and south of Lake Urmia ( wiki/Lake_urmia ). Their horsemen were allegedly the first non-steppe cavalry organized in the so called civilized world of Western Asia, and their art gives ample proof of gradual changes in the horse tack, seat and weaponry and armour for these horsemen.
Paintings from Til Barsip, strategic Assyrian stronghold located along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, c.100km northeast of Aleppo, Syria, provide beautiful examples of Assyrian horses and their tack eg til barsip chariot some originals at Louvre and Aleppo Musem, many paintings copied by Lucien Cavro (I got mine from Andre Parrot, The Arts of Assyria Arts Assyria Parrot )
Assyria had many enemies, including Egypt, Syrian princedoms, Elam iranica.com elam , desert nomads, Medes, Persians, Anatolians, Babylonians to name a few. War was essential to their survival and wealth, while a mighty stallion, whether mounted or pulling a chariot, was the symbol of it.

'Horse' books to read : 'Selected writings on chariots and other early vehicles, riding and harness' Littauer et alHyland Horse in the Ancient WorldAzzaroli Finally, from Assyria we get the very first image (during the reign of Shalmaneser III ) of so called 'Parthian Shot,' a tactic of turning around in the 'saddlle' and shooting arrows, from one's bow while sitting astride a galloping horse, at the pursing enemy. Here, the Assyrian chariot is pursuing these most likely Iranian Skuda mounted riders and one of them is about to fire his arrow at the chariot crew.

Head hunting and bow shooting Cimmerians and later Scythians/Skuda/Saka

attacked and wrecked the kingdoms of Assyria's enemies from Anatolia - kingdom of Urartu and Phrygia and Mushki, but then next wave of these horsemen lent their hands and bows (in alliance with the Medes, who had finished off Urartu iranica.com/articles/media ) to the final destroction of Assyria herself, at the end of the VII century, and the fall of the city of Harran marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire. Assyrian art would later surface in the Persian arts of the Achaemenid Empire etc.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Salveos.
Polish soldier, doctor of medicine, writer and traveler Teodor Tripplin wiki/Teodor_Tripplin , during his voyages of 1837-38 visited Iberian Penninsula and North Africa - it resulted in a number of books and articles,. He was quite a character, and some of his stories got published as 'Maurowie niegdyś w Hiszpanii, a dziś w Afryce.' (Moors once in Spain, today in Africa) in Biblioteka Warszawska, vol. 1 of the 1851 edition ( the story run throughout the 4 volumes). He, accidently being a veteran Polish horse soldier, wrote, on pages 422-424, about Spanish horses of Jerez stud and put some comment on the Polish horses too in the context of the Spanish ones. I may translate his writings into English but for now the Polish original for Polish readers -

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Salve,
I am planing to start blogging more about the Eastern Eurasian Steppe, the Altai Saka, Xiongnu, Tocharians of Eastern Turkestan, Turkic empires, Mongolian and Chinese cavalry and horsemanship. While I am not planing to abandon European knights and horses, I think I must devote much more space and time to these splendid cavaliers of the Ordos Steppe and Orkhon River plains.

Actually, I am very fascinated with the early nomads of the eastern Eurasia, especially the Upper Altai of South Siberia during the Bronze Age and in the first millennium BC . And in the light of their development in the arts of horsemanship and horse tack, their ( Saka and Xiongnu) influence on their southern neighbours - the Chin, Han, Sui and Tang Chinese, and the Koreans and Tibetans.
I have been working on some illustrations showing Tang and Sui Chinese horse tack based on their art, especially the famous sculpted horses. We shall revisit writings of Karl Hrinz Ranitzsch, Albert Dien, Di Cosmo, and other scholars studying Han, Sui and Tang Chinese cavalries (that were not necessarily Han Chinese per se, but included Saka, Tocharians, Xiongnu, Persians, Uigurs, Turks, Tibetans etc).
So let us treat this entry as a introduction to the subject or perhaps rather an announcement. And in order to put some cream on this bland cake :) let me provide you with a link to the fascinating subject regarding my most favorite emperor of the Chinese history - Tang Taizong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Taizong_of_Tang - and his six horses.
This link comes via Facebook from Penn State and it is the entire dissertation of Xiugin Zhou on the Tang Taizong mausoleum to himself and his six steeds - tang taizong horses
http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=115480258202&h=b0fb8c794d67ba8b6b81c9cdfb099f60&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sino-platonic.org%2Fcomplete%2Fspp187_taizong_emperor.pdf

In addition there is this essential work on the Eastern Eurasian horse warriors and their swords during the ancient and early medieval periods - titled 'The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia'by William Trousdale, profusely illustrated with period images smithsoniananthropologyTrousdale
http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/anthropology/SC_Abstract.cfm

I hope to start writing soon on these Eastern horses and their riders

ps
for some reason my links did not want to display themselves properly so I am attaching them for a 'copy and paste' 'linking'

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Salve,
during the XV century through first half of XX century Polish chart/ plural charty/ (sighthound chart_polski/ ) was a close companion of the Polish-Lithuanian noblity, especially during their military campaigns and hunting excursions into the vastness of our steppes and forests.

These beautiful dogs, often called wolf-hounds, as they were great against wolves, are often present in the paintings and memoirs (most accessible in English famous Pasek Memoirs page 255 ) of this bygone era.
In more modern literature, in the Polish writer Bohdan Krolikowski's cycle of fantastic and beautifully written trilogy on the Swedish and Muscovy wars of the mid XVII century, the main hero Blażej Siennicki had a near death experience while hunting with his companions and their Polish charty in the vicinity of the Swedish army, forgetting that the war was all around them.
Hunting in spite of war all around the hunters always brings to my imagination the famous chase that Scythian nobles undertook after a hare that had appeared between their own lines and the Achaemenid Persian of Darius the Great army arrayed for battle - or so wrote in his Ἱστορίαι Herodotos (Book IV).
Our Polish chart is a close cousin of Russian borzoi (nice little book on borzoi observed in the early XX century here observations on Borzoi ). Nota bene Polish sighthound was often called 'Polish borzoi' (swift or fast) dog in the XIX century, and belonged to the great Asian family of borzoi dogs (sighthounds), for it was also a cousin of a dog from southern Ukraine called Crimean borzoi, bred by both arch-enemies and sometimes friends of their northern neighbors- the Crimean Tatars, and the Central Asian borzoi that was bred by the Central Asian nomads from time immemorial :); also a cousin of Moldavian sighthound, Caucasus sighthound, Persian sighthound etc.

Polish painter Juliusz Kossak ( .wikipedia /Juliusz_Kossak ) often painted these splendid dogs in XVII-XIX century settings, the first scene most likely he observed in person eg:

My drawing was done with a 'F' size Rotring Artpen and watercolor brushes, and then I worked it a little bit with GIMP Paint Studio and Wacom tablet.

Salve,
early this month I did some travel across the Big Pond and while on a plane I was working, with a ball pen, on my quick sketch done after the plate 111 in the monumental work 'Zolnierz Polski,' vol 1 (Polish Soldier) by colonel Bronislaw Gembarzewski.

In the original plate mosci Gembarzewski drew two Wallachian ( Wallachia ) warriors after 1581 print by Abraham de Bruyn.
I drew the horse and some of its tack after the Gembarzewski's Figure A, in turn itself based on de Bruyn's one titled 'Eques Walachus'. The rider's costume is done after the Figure B from the same de Bruyn's plate, titled 'Militis ex Walachia vestitus' (knight/warrior dressed in the Wallachian fashion).
Bows and arrows. short lance, horse curb-bit, the saddle etc are my own additions. I drew the Balkan shield attached on the the right side behind the saddle in order to show more saddle etc. The stirrup probably should be rounder, and I will change that on my color version of this drawing.
I run my drawing through the GIMP Paint Studio cartoon filter to give a bit of a woodcut look.
I hoping to draw more horse and rider figures after mosci Gembarzewski's work in the coming months.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Salve,
today I am still capitalizing on my old artowrk, and I am presenting 3 old pen and ink, watercolor and watercolor pencil images that I have run through GIMP cartoon filter
This one is my, rather poor, copy of the Colonel Bronislaw Gembarzewski watercolor done almost a hundred years ago. It shows an officer of the Napoleon's Polish Guard regiment of cheavaux-legers

The second is my color pencils and watercolors sketch of such officer bearing a message :) at least that was my intent. I could not control the color with these water soluble pencils.

Final one is a drawing of a Duchy of Warsaw Uhlan. I think I did draw this copying the some other pen and ink drawing by JOB or Begnini or some other military artist. I added the clolors to the rider and horse with watercolor and the background with GIMP Paint studio.
Last year Poland's premier military Napoleonic publishers, Wyd. Karabela (this is a family onwed little company, led by a woman, and I am proud to say I met them at the Kluszyn 2010 celebration in Warsaw two weeks ago), gave us splendid books on the uhlans, Vistula Legion and Chevaux-legers Polonais, fantastically illustrated with these amazingly precise and artful plates (as seen in the links) by artist-historian Ryszard Morawski ( who is already in his 80s!) .karabela.waw.pl/ulani.htm www.karabela.waw.pl/legia.htm www.karabela.waw.pl/gwardia.htm

Marhaba,
I have been working on these two sketches of Turkish horses/warriors of different time periods - early Middle Ages and Ottoman empire.
the first one is going to show a retainer with a warhorse -roughly II part of the XVII century, but there is much more work to be done

the second it is going to show a Turkish horseman from the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in AnatoliaSeljuk_Sultanate Rum and this is just a rough sketch

salve,
My last trip to Poland was very fruitful in so many ways. In regards to my old drawings and watercolors I was able to salvage some and photograph some, although the paper I had used on them 'went south' and I afraid will continue deterioration.
Anyway, long time ago, 20 years or so, I drew these images of French Napoleonic cavalry based on different drawings by JOB, Benigni etc. At that time I was very interested in anything Napoleonic, no so anymore I am afraid.
Now I just added the cartoon function when resizing them on GIMP Paint Studio.
Enjoy

Friday, July 9, 2010

Salve,
400 anniversary of the Klushino battle took place this past weekend in Warsaw, Republic of Poland. For me this was the very first historical reenactment that I participated as a reenactor.
Many things could be said about the event and people participating in it, but definitely for me this was one very interesting meeting with the 'living history from a saddle etc. From cavalry to infantries of various nations - Czechs, Russians, Poles, Ukrainian etc - one could see how much work and passion had been dedicated to the reconstruction of the period costumes, arms and armor, camps, cooking utensils, food etc, in order to present to the modern, technology-driven world palpable and historical reconstruction of the XVII century life. There were also female camp followers and noble ladies, some dressed in splendidly reconstructed courtly dresses etc.
Finally, the horsemen of husaria were there, in greatest numbers ever, with lances, wild pelts of animals, splendid horse tack on mostly well trained mounts, fancy weapons and armor - lovely and yet menacing sight to behold.

Polish actor Krzysztof Wakulinski Krzysztof_Wakulinski commanded the field as hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, and narration was provided by another famous Polish actor Olgierd Lukaszewicz Olgierd_ Lukaszewicz

Many good people were there, eg in the above photo Polish writer Jacek Komuda www.samozwaniec.info/archiwum.php , wearing a delia with a fur collar over hussar armor and nice shishak, ridding his dapple grey mare.
The principal organizer Bartek Siedlar http://www.hussar.com.pl/13063/kluszyn-1610-2010-wasze-zdjecia-i-filmy ) was the spiritus movens of the event and actual director of the event - that was also filmed - while I would like to especially thank Agnieszka for providing me with a nice Anglo-Arabian steed Emir so I could ride on the battlefield and participate in some action on Sunday July 4, 2010.
I was especially impressed with 'Jareks' of Gniew Husar Banner http://www.zamek-gniew.pl/index.php?mod=more&idsel=77 - their hussar spirit and splendid reconstruction of husaria.

My friend Karol, Napoleonic reenactor and passionate propagator of historic riding, came to observe and we had a very interesting discussion on riding long, Xenophon, gaited horses of the past and Old Polish horsemanship with Tara and Rick Suligowski, US premier hussar, from California [sic!]
Polish, Ukrainian, Muscovite (Russian) and Czech infantry provided necessary firepower, and powder smoke at times was covering the field while cannon shots were thundering across the Vistula River meadow, where lots of debris from the Nazi Germany ruined and destroyed the Warsaw's medieval Old Town had been deposited during the post war reconstruction. Thus this past Sunday we accidentally walked and rode over some Old Warsaw stones and fragmented bricks that husaria might have walked many hundreds years ago.

Salve,
I am in Poland and I have found some of my old sketch books with some old drawings.
I am going to show some of these here, as I am going to talk more about the American Indians/Native Americans and their horses, and their horse tack.
So allow me to start with some two decades old pen and ink and watercolor drawings.

About Me

Czołem/Salve, fellow net traveler... I am Dariusz aka Dario and this is my meydân. Born in the year of the Fire Horse hence I never tire of admiring, drawing & painting or sculpting horses, or just researching the history of equus cabalus, especially in the mounted warrior context. My drawings and paintings - prints - are available for sale (I use MyPaint, Krita & GIMP), I also do commissioned illustration etc, so if you need to contact me regarding a purchase, commission, or any other matter, do email me: darajawausz[at]gmail [dot] com
Ciao - Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas